54 



NEW YORK STATE ML'SEUM 



have found burrows about 30 feet from the ground, but most of them occur 

 in the trunk or near the base of the larger limbs. The latter seems to be a 

 favorite place for the deposition of eggs. The young borer passes the win- 

 ter in a rather shallow excavation in the sapwood, the following spring- 

 renewing operations with increased vigor. The boring of the second season 

 is largely just under the bark, the burrows being about ^i inch in width and 

 1^ inch in depth, and running in almost an)- direction, though usual!)- longi- 

 tudinally or obliquely upward and partly around the tree. Sometime during 

 its life, probably in the second fall when the borer is about 16 months old, 

 a deep burrow is made, usually penetrating about 4 inches in an upward, 

 oblique direction toward the heart of the tree and then 

 running some distance parallel with the grain of the wood, 

 as represented in figure 4, which- was drawn from a photo- 

 graph. The larva transforms to a pupa and from that to a 

 beetle at tlie entl of this deep burrow, the beautiful adult 

 emerging from the trunk tlirough an ova! hole | pi. 2, fig. 5 ] 

 about y% by Ss inch in diameter. 



The only natural enemies observed preying on this 

 insect are woodpeckers. I)r Packard records having seen 

 them at work. Mr A. \\. Kirkland has seen the hairy 

 woodpecker, the downy woodpecker and the flicker feeding 

 on white larvae taken from l)eneath the bark of infestetl 



I'lJ'llllJll t"-'-^- 

 \ I j-f '';l? ■ li'JI Associated insects. .As ])reviousl\- pointed out, the 



Fig.4 Deep burrow in suofar niaole borer attacks trees in iheir prime. It is well 



which lh= grub irans- '^ ' ' 



forms to th.. beetle knowu tostudeutsof nature that an enfeebled jilant invites 



insect injury by presenting fav(^ra])le conditions for their mullij)Iication. 

 Trees suffering to any e.xtent from the attack of the sugar maple borer are 

 usually infested with the pigeon treme.x, Tremex columba Linn., a 

 species which assists materially in the destruction begun by the l)eetle and 

 which is noticed on page 59. 



Remedies. \'crv badlv infested trees should be cut and burned before 



